PYJ Killed Coalition;Says LINU Boss, Withdraws Support
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The Liberia National Union (LINU) has officially withdrawn from the proposed coalition with the All Liberian Party (ALP) of businessman Benoni Urey and the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) of Senator Prince Y. Johnson.

Nathaniel T. Blama, Sr., the political leader of LINU has revealed that a declaration of intent was signed on April 21, 2017 to work with the ALP and MRD to form a coalition ahead of the elections.

According to him, a technical committee from the three political parties was put in place to formulate all the technical documents to be submitted to the National Elections Commission, which would subsequently be endorsed by executives of all the involved parties before forming the coalition.

Making the disclosing to the local media at press conference on Friday May 26, 2017, the LINU boss said the process suffered a serious setback without reaching a conclusion.

He stated that the one week period given to the technical committee to submit their work elapsed weeks without a tangible document to work with.

Blama revealed that less than 24 hours after the declaration of intent was signed, the momentum was undermined by the MDR Standard Bearer Senator Prince Y. Johnson.

He added that the Nimba County Senator was in the media stating he is the most qualified and skilled person among the three and may go second to none if the proposed coalition works.

“The whole idea about the coalition was undermined by Senator Johnson, he was in the media saying who will go first and second which of course was not part of our discussion. Our first agenda to work on the technical aspect and have an agreement before the democratic process comes in,” he said.

Expressing his disappointment, the LINU political leader stated that the Senator Johnson’s action shows that he is normally afraid to operate in an organized setting.

Meanwhile, the former Montserrado County senatorial candidate has disclosed that his party plans to prepare representative candidates to contest on the party tickets for the pending election, since the planned coalition did not materialize.

“The nomination of candidates by NEC timetable will be done in the next three weeks which may strangulate his party intention for the October 2017 elections if we want to wait for a process that will not be fruitful,” he added.

LINU has maintained that it remains open to collaboration with all other political parties including the ALP and MRD, but as far coalition is concerned, the time is just not feasible.